This Week

Saturday was the quarterly Community Pot Luck up in High Rolls.

I try to do a little kitchen clean-up each time I am there, but somehow these muffins escaped my notice last week.

That's not streusel.

Fortunately, with mountain folk, you never have to rely on mass-produced foods of questionable age. Mountain folk can COOK!

As usual, I was too busy socializing to get pictures until half the food was gone. I may or may not have been partially responsible for the quick disappearance of these:

Cheese pierogies with chorizo bacon bits. Even yummier than they looked. I could have happily just eaten those all night!

Of course, some visitors were unimpressed,

but I think that's because her Momma is such a good cook, she takes great food for granted.

I counted 53 people, not a huge crowd, but just the right size. I actually got to talk to everyone this time!

Socializing is definitely the best part of the pot lucks.

***

The very next day was Logan's birthday party at our house. What was I thinking?! He wanted a Magic Tree House birthday party, which was great - there are so many themes in the books, I could use the leftover decorations and party favors from every other party we have ever had! For food we did "High Tide in Hawaii" and had fresh fruit and veggies, Hawaiian cole slaw, mango salsa, and of course meatballs.

Daddy always decorates the cakes, and I thought to make it easy on him I would order a toy treehouse as a cake topper. This turned out to be WAY too big, but also so darn perfect!

Look at the little Jack and Annie!! I just used it as a table decoration, and Logan absolutely loved it. He loves tiny things like that, and he couldn't wait to play with it as soon as the party was over.

As I said, Daddy always decorates the kids' cakes, but he got stuck on a car wreck. In fact, he missed the entire party! I waited as long as I could, but when it became evident this would be a long haul, I fashioned a tree and treehouse with sprinkles, frosting and graham crackers.

Logan was happy with it!

Mostly the kids just like to run around, but we had two MTH activities. For Dinosaurs Before Dark, they dug for dino bones in side back yard.

No shovels, paleontologists wouldn't want to damage the bones!

When they found all the bones, they had to bring them in and figure out how they fit together.

Easier said than done!

I finally took pity and gave them a picture.

And here we have the Loganosaurus Rex (signed by most of the attendees):

While they were digging for bones, Christopher and Jayden were stealthily setting up the treasure hunt for Pirates Past Noon:

That carried them all over the house and yard, until they found the goody bags in the pirate ship playset I picked up at a yard sale years ago.

Hawaiian cowboy pirate dude! With a glow stick!

Sharing the same brain, as usual.

***

Last week of summer reading!! The story time activity was supposed to be chalk drawing outside, but it is hovering around 900 degrees this week. I varied crafts inside for a bit, then settled on cool new shoes for school, to go with Pete the Cat, Rockin' in My School Shoes. I've noticed some increasingly ridiculous shoes available in the stores...so we tried to top those:

Rocket boosters, wheels, spikes, AND they play music!

Modeled after Honey Lemon's purse, this one blows bubbles and stores extra school supplies, among other things - just push the right button.

The Gardener's model. Seeds are stored in the brown part of the toe. As you walk it plants them, then when you walk back it squirts water out of the sides and waters them!

***

900 degree weather is a bad time to be orphaned and trapped in an abandoned car. Thank goodness for Good Samaritans who are willing to spend an hour rescuing kittens, and Grandma, who is willing to foster and nurse back to health!

And for a teen volunteer who was quite happy to spend her entire 2-hour shift in that exact spot.

***

Christopher spent the week at Camp Innoventure, where he learned how to set up a business. The kids had the chance to make things to sell at the Farmer's Market, and he chose bat houses.

He had to do everything himself, from measuring

to cutting (this made him really nervous but he did great!)

to drilling, 

then screwing together and sanding.

He sold 4 at the Farmer's Market Saturday, and has requests for more! Time for him to start buying ME lunch!

***

At home we started on the Netherlands. They seem to like sour things.

So do my kids!

***

For the last Teens and Tweens, we had water gun fights and pizza.

This young lady just needed a moment. School is starting soon, it's stressful.

***

Finally, we had our closing Dance Party, complete with ice cream bar (and yes, of course we have been reading Groovy Joe in all our story times!) About 80 kids and parents got to watch me do the Tooty Ta and Baby Shark, which should be enough to make anyone happy to go back to school. Huge thanks to the volunteers who pulled one last day of work and served the ice cream! And of course to all the sponsors, parents, and library staff who also helped make it a great summer!

A Few Thoughts on Summer Reading (and after)

I grew up hating exercise.

I knew that it was good for me. I knew that it was something I should do. I just didn't like to do it.

When I was little, I was always exercising, but nobody called it that. Back then it went by the scientific term of "playing outside." It was fun, I was active, I was healthy.

Then in school, exercise changed. It was something we were forced to do in PE. I didn't understand the rules, and I wasn't very good at things other kids seemed to do effortlessly. On my very first grade card (yes, in Kinder), I got an "unsatisfactory" on my grade card for PE. (My crime: I couldn't skip. I could climb a tree and swim across our pond, but I couldn't skip.)

PE, of course, was mandatory through 10th grade, and none of it (with the possible exception of that one week we played on scooters in first grade) made me like exercise any more. In fact, it just continually reinforced that this was something I wasn't good at, something that was unpleasant, something that was a "have to", not a "want to". Once I finished the last required PE class, I washed my hands of it. It never occurred to me to seek out opportunities to exercise on my own. I didn't HAVE to any more, so why on earth would I choose to?

Then in college, there were the dreaded two PE credits. Most of those classes interfered with the student teaching schedule, so many education majors, including myself, ended up in a January term class called Body Conditioning. Yeah, not my first choice, but it was a "have-to".

The other half of the class was made up of body builders who spent their whole day in the weight room anyway, so they figured they might as well get a credit out of it anyway. The very first Friday, our teacher (the head of the entire athletic department, did I mention that?) announced that we were going to play volleyball. Everybody can play volleyball, right?

This was college, you don't pick teams, we just shuffled to a side. You can guess what happened: all the body builders gravitated to one side of the net, all the ed majors on the other.

I hate to stereotype, but the fact is, we were behind by twenty points before the first serve. It was a slaughter. The body builders were showing off, and we were miserable - but not surprised. Most of us grew up hating PE. It was just an hour to live through.

The teacher decided to help us out. First he encouraged us to move up to serve. Maybe a little more.

Then he started cheating. "That's a do-over, there was a breeze."

Body Builder: "Coach, we're inside the building!"

Coach: "Want to do laps?"

BB: "Huge breeze, Coach. Definite do-over."

We were still losing. But it was starting to be funny. And then. Then.

The head of the athletic department. Who was dressed in a jacket and tie for an important meeting later. Tossed his jacket aside and joined our team. 

He was cheating. He was trash-talking the guys and encouraging us. We were...giggling? It was...fun.

We still lost. But I talked to the others afterward, and none of them could remember the last time PE - any sort of exercise - had been fun. We wanted to...get this...do it again.

What does this have to do with reading? Many kids - and adults - see reading the same way I did exercise. They don't like it. They aren't good at it. It's something you HAVE to do, like cleaning your room or paying your taxes. They are never going to do it a second more than they have to...unless it can become fun again.

I will never be a gym rat. But if you make exercise fun, if I'm doing it with someone - well, then, I'm there! Riding a stationary bike? Nah. Hiking with the kids to check out a waterfall? Heck, yeah! Push-ups in my living room? Not happening. Rock climbing or rafting with my friends? Let's make a weekend of it! 

Adults and kids alike are far more likely to do things that are fun, and that we do with somebody. We have tried to make reading - or just coming to the library - fun over the summer. That's why we switched to the READO boards a couple years ago, to make it more of a game than a "have to," required number of books or minutes. We gathered kids together in groups at the library to just have fun, and encouraged reading with someone else in some of our READO tasks.

As school gets under way, it's easy to get back into that have-to mode. There's just so much that does have to be done, and so little time to do it in! But forcing me to exercise did not make me want to exercise. It made me resist it even more. Forcing kids to read will not make them want to read. It will just make them resist it more. Yes, I said it. And many recent studies back this up: check out this article, or this.

Yes, the more you read, the better reader you will be - just as, the more you run, the better runner you will be. But if you can't get someone to open a book or lace up those shoes to begin with...see what I'm saying? We want our kids to be good readers, yes, but we want them to CHOOSE to read - or any gains they make now will be lost the second they aren't forced to any longer.

So we would like to encourage you (and ourselves) to try to hang onto that sense of fun you hopefully found this summer. Give each other some silly reading challenges. Let the kids pick out books that interest them. Most important, read WITH them. Read a chapter book out loud at dinner each night (pick a funny one!) Let them see you curled up with something YOU want to read, and let them see that you enjoy it.

We want you to have fun, too! Come by the library any time this year, and let us know what you are looking for - or not looking for. Notice that when a child is brought to us because "he needs a book for school," we will never ever ever begin by asking him what his 'reading level' is. We will ask: "What kinds of things do you like to read? What do you like to do in your spare time? What's the last book you read that you kind of liked?" or even, "What is your favorite movie?" (We're Marvel girls here, but we have DC books, too!), or "What is the book you liked the LEAST?" We want them to leave with a book they aren't dreading sitting down with - and we want you to leave with one you are excited about, too!

If you aren't local, we guarantee your area librarians feel the same way. Try them! And then let us know what you are reading, because we want in on the fun, too!

This Week

The days sort of blended together, so in no particular order...

...remember when I ran out on my lunch last week to buy snow cone supplies (and play with kittens?) It rained. All day Saturday. Anybody need any cups???

We still managed to make a nice mess. Watch the cherry syrup, it shoots sideways.

And after my shift Sunday, I found a treasure at a yard sale:



My Pfaltzgraff pattern! I didn't even know they had a rolling pin!

***

Overheard end-of-conversation between two little girls:

"And that's how my baby sister was born. And you, too!"

***

Saturday we had an arts and crafts day. We hold those occasionally, and they are usually fairly quiet, but again - rain all day! The room was packed, with about 80 kids and adults given free reign over craft materials. Including paint.

Someone made me a flower :)

 I asked the volunteers afterward for help cleaning up. One merrily skipped to the room and then stopped short at the door and said, "Oh, my." We got it done, though, in time to set up for Monday's art project. Painting again.

In my quest to see how much the parents will forgive me for, we painted rhythm sticks.



Some super cool designs! Some teens-who-are-not-volunteers-here helped clean up, and, well...



I should have been more specific when I asked them to put the lids on the paint bottles. Pretty much all 100 of them are like this. Blue lid on white paint. Purple on lime green. Sigh.

***

I think I figured out why this plant died.

Those are flying ants and their larvae. Their tunnels went all through the pot, then through the three holes and into the ground. Pretty impressive, really. I'll spare you the video.

***

Spontaneous STEAM on the floor in front of my desk:

Symmetry makes me happy.

***

We can't find the missing edge piece anywhere.

And several patrons have offered to stand as bodyguards to prevent anyone from taking it apart again. Which people have done. I don't know why.

*** 

Memo to the nameless woman at Walmart: If the police want you to go with them, you are probably going with them. Throwing yourself to the ground once you are handcuffed might be more impressive if you don't do it in slow-motion to avoid actually hurting yourself. I don't think anyone even bothered to take a cell-phone video, so you should probably just go with it.

***

Friday Miss Rachel from the ASOMBRO Institute came and talked to about 70 of us about the creatures we share the desert with.

Petting Peedie (Petey?)

 She did a super job with a really squirrely crowd!

Since the topic was arthropods, our hissers came out to play, too. The baby even made a rare appearance before scuttling back underneath Mom. (You can see him on the right of the log.)

***

I have a basket of rocks with various pictures and words painted on them. Before each story time, I let three kids pick a rock, and then I have to make up a story with those three things on the spot. Of course, the kids have to help!

Three of my favorites so far:

Just as we began this story, a young patron walked in with a rather agitated black tarantula named Wolfie in a jar, so he became the star.

Once there was a tarantula named Wolfie. Wolfie LOVED to hear stories, but he didn't know how to read! He tried walking up to people and asking them to read him a story, but as soon as they saw him, they all yelled "RUN!!!" and ran away. Wolfie was very sad.

One day, he crawled into a big stone building, and wandered until he came to a nice, quiet office. He crawled up on to the desk, and found someone's lunch spread out on it. He decided to hang out on the apple for a bit, because it was so pretty and shiny.

After a bit, our new Police Chief, Mr. Peete, came in and sat down. He started looking over some paperwork, and without looking he reached out and grabbed...

his sandwich. And he ate his sandwich. Then he reached out and grabbed...

his granola bar. And he ate his granola bar. Then he reached out and...

ALMOST grabbed his apple, but just in time he realized there was a spider on it! Now, being the Chief of Police, he couldn't very well go tearing down the hallway screaming, "RUN!!!" So he took a deep breath and asked Wolfie WHAT he was doing on his APPLE. 

Wolfie explained that he was just looking for someone to read him a story. Mr. Peete told Wolfie that he knew just the place for him! He got his little friend River to bring Wolfie to the library, where he arrived just in time for story time!

(P.S. Wolfie is now living in a tank by my desk, where he hopes to hear many stories this summer. And Mr. Peete has been warned to check his lunches.)

Once upon the time, there was a pirate...was he a nice pirate, or a mean pirate?

(Most of the group yelled 'mean', while a couple yelled "nice!")

MOST of the time, he was a mean pirate, but sometimes, secretly, he was very nice. And one day, that mostly-mean-but-sometimes-nice pirate fell in love with a frog.

Now, he could n't TELL anyone he was in love with a frog, because that would totally ruin his reputation as a mean pirate. So, he kept the frog in his cabin, and each night he would close his door, and he and the frog would play cards and chat all night.

Then one day, there was a terrible storm. The ship was rocking back and forth on huge waves, and then lightning hit the mast, and it caught on fire! Everyone had to jump into the row boats to escape. The pirate had a choice to make - should he leave the frog in his cabin, where it would surely die, or should he go save the frog - but then everyone would know his secret! What did he do?

(unanimous yell of "save the frog!")

Of COURSE he saved the frog! Love is way more important than worrying about what other people think of you! He ran back to his cabin, grabbed the frog, and jumped into the row boat with the other pirates.

They all stared at him in silence. He glared back at them and barked out, "WHAT?!" Slowly, they all reached into their pockets, and pulled out their own frogs.

See, sometimes, we aren't as different as we think. And sometimes, if we let people see what's really important to us, we can find we have a lot more friends to hang out with.

Once upon a time, there was an alligator (I forget what the kids named him, so we'll say Fred.) Most of the alligators in Fred's swamp just ate and slept, and ate and slept, and ate and slept. Fred, however, was an alligator who wondered about things. 

"What are the names for the different types of trees around the swamp?" he wondered.

"Can we eat them?" asked the other alligators.

"Um...no," Fred answered.

"Then who cares?" said the other alligators. And they ate and slept, and ate and slept, and ate and slept.

"How do humans make those cars go?" Fred wondered on another day.

"Can we eat them?" the other alligators asked.

"Um...no," Fred answered (although there were rumors involving actual humans.)

"Then who cares?" said the other alligators. And they ate and slept, and ate and slept, and ate and slept.

One night, when the other alligators had all finished eating and were now fast asleep, Fred stayed awake looking up at the moon and the stars. "I wonder what stars are made of?" Fred wondered. Nobody was awake to say, "Who cares?", but Fred did hear a sound. (generic sound of spacecraft landing) What do you think it was?

(A SPACESHIP!)

It WAS a space ship! And the door opened, and what was standing inside?

(AN ALIEN! Description settled on after some discussion)

Fred and the alien introduced themselves, and Fred asked the alien what he was doing at the swamp.

"Well," the alien said, "I have so many questions about the world and the planets and EVERYTHING. But my friends always just say, 'Who cares?' So I decided to get into my space ship and see if I could find the answers myself."

"I know how you feel!!!" Fred exclaimed. "Only I don't have a space ship to travel in."

Well, of course, the alien invited Fred to join him. Did he go? Of course he did! And the blasted off into space to see what answers they could find to their questions.

And the rest of the alligators didn't notice a thing. They just ate and slept, and ate and slept, and ate and slept.

***

The kids are planning a "Goodbye to Summer Party". This is Shane's menu:

This Week

Monday

First day to earn prizes in the Summer Reading Program. Two of three volunteers for the morning rush were new, but did a fantastic job. Another two volunteers had birthdays today, so they were subjected to me singing to them in the middle of the library.

Free lunches also began today (and sold out), and I actually remembered to bring a cooler for composting (the amount of vegetables they throw away drives me crazy). Then I left Cheryl alone with it all for two days and took a road trip with Grace!

She's a pretty good little traveler! Four hours is a LONG time to be in the car, but we stopped for some Sonic, and saw some cool things along the way.

Grace thought it was pretty funny that the truck was carrying another truck. She also got excited every time we saw cows, which was pretty much every five miles.

We made a couple potty stops on the side of the road. One was by this tree, where Grace spotted the nest:

It was also full of noisy cicadas. I was looking for one to show her, and heard her say, "Look Mommy, ants!" Yep. Standing in the middle of an anthill. Just as I turned around, they started biting. Had to strip her down and smear cortisone (just when you think you have overpacked...)

She recovered pretty quickly, though, and was excited about the hotel room! Me, a little less so. We had to go back to the front desk to get batteries for the remote and a light bulb for the lamp. I'll leave the sticky stuff on the TV for someone else to deal with. And the phone falls apart when you answer it. The only ice machine was broken, so we ran across the street to a gas station. We had packed ham and fruit and veggies, so we just had a picnic lunch in the hotel room and watched TV - which confused Grace, because we haven't had cable since before she was born. I have to say, we aren't missing much. She actually asked me to turn it off after a little bit of Donald Duck!

Oh, and the security lock on the door.

Why yes, I am armed, funny you should ask.

Tuesday

Nobody slit our throats in the night, and we weren't eaten by bedbugs - although Grace's bed smelled iffy, and when I stripped mine I discovered black flecks on the sheet (not bugs - no ides what). (I always strip the beds when I leave and sort into colored piles - partly to make it easier for housekeeping, and partly to make sure they are changed for the next guests!) And the shower ONLY had hot water, so that was a quick one. Coffee pot leaked. Free breakfast was cereal flakes, toast, muffins and waffles. Edible at least. We killed time in the breakfast room before heading to Grace's appointment, which was only seven minutes away.

Grace was having a good day - for her that means listening and cooperating and speaking so she could be understood - but the doctors saw mostly the same things we do at home and school, which is a good thing! One test had her trying to repeat back specific words, and they remarked that there was one word she remembered consistently. I had to laugh when I saw what it was - cows! (What did we see all day yesterday?!)

She received a couple specific diagnoses and recommendations that will be added to her IEP this fall, and hopefully help her get more specific services. If you have ever played the special ed game, you know labels can be a good thing - sometimes you need them to force the services that everyone knws perfectly well the child needs. The UNM doctors were fantastic!

When we broke for lunch we found a nice shady park on Lohman and just hung out for an hour. Grace had received this cool pink PURSE from the doctor (if you know Grace, you know that was perfect) which contained a mermaid doll that matched her shirt! 

Back to the doctor's for the final consult, then the looooong trip home. Only one minor melt-down from Grace, and I can't really blame her! She was a super traveler overall!

We crossed the Rio Grand both ways.

A little rain would be nice, is what I'm saying.

Wednesday

Got in to work early to catch up on what I had missed. More than fifty new kids registered for summer reading, and we didn't even have any programs! I also had a cart full of new books (yay!) so I spent most of the rest of the day getting those ready to go out.

I bought a couple puzzles to go along with the music theme, and I put the first one out on a table today. I don't know if my patrons will be interested, but it quickly became the spot to find staff members during their break. You can't do just ONE piece!

And the ants have eaten pretty much everthing in my flower garden. Peppermint oil was a bust, trying cinnamon.

Thursday

Normally my late day to go in, but I needed to make up for being gone. On the way I raided trash cans behind businesses for empty boxes:

then I put my volunteers to work taping them all back together!

***

Young woman standing at my desk: "I like chicken."

Me: "Me too."

Her: "On a cob."

Me: "---"

Her: "I like Australian Shepherds, too. You can poke them all day."

Me: "---"

Friday

Builder's Club today! Our first SRP program. I had set the room inside up last night, with the Legos, Duplos, blocks and Lincoln Logs. As we got close to opening time, I started chucking the boxes outside:

The first kids arrived half an hour before we were set to begin, but I saw no reason to make them wait.

A castle! 

They said no grown-ups - not even me! Hmph. And after they got all four sides up, this little cherub walked up, studied it for a moment, then put both hands out and shoved it over.

She left them to rebuild, and went back to her favorite, pool noodle slices and shaving cream!

I already had the pool noodle slices from other projects:

And, of course, I already had shaving cream! Doesn't every librarian? This was a great activity I heard about from someone at Explora.

Just a little dab of shaving cream and they stick together in all sorts of formations! I asked the moms to help their littlest ones, and reminded the kids whenever I walked by to keep it away from their faces, but they all did a super job with it. Of course, after a bit the shaving cream became the main focus, and rather than towers we ended up with creamy pies of sorts. Sensory play, it's all good! And took just a few seconds to rinse away. Several parents added the materials to their shopping lists right on the spot, so they could do it again at home.

The program finished around time for lunch, which sold out again. My camera battery died after those few pictures, but there were at least 140 people there. Hard to count when they are all running every which way! The kids were really having a ball with the boxes, building things, making robot arms, and flattening them to slide down our tiny hill, so I didn't start breaking them down until everyone was gone - about 2PM. This might be a good time to mention that it was 102 degrees today. I did manage to fit every one in my car after removing the car seats, but had to hit two different recycling centers to get rid of them all. Then tossed back some ice cream and a lot of bottled water before setting the room up for tomorrow's program.

At home in the evening we watched a VERY old DVD about Sweden, the country we are studying right now. Note to self: ask person who orders AV to update our travel videos. Those new-fangled cameras they manufactre are pretty spiffy - and about the size of my toaster. Logan has decided he wants to join the Sami and herd reindeer. I can see that!

Tomorrow is my day off...camping with the Navigators. Who needs sleep, right?